Crew Bio
Lindsay Ellis began her career as an filmmaker as an adolescent in the pre-digital era, using tools such as two VCRs stacked on top of the other to edit. Before moving to California, she worked in new media as an editor and video producer for various websites. She attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts before coming to the University of Southern California to study film production as a graduate. She hopes to continue working in both documentary and fiction in different capacities, creating films that tell stories that aren’t often heard, and that speak to people.
Clarinda Morales has produced a number of documentaries for the past several years. After her undergraduate Theater and Film work at UCLA. One of her most notable documentaries was on Showtime entitled Reversal of Fortune about a homeless man who was given $100,000. She has also produced in LA and NY and the UK for MTV, VH1 and other networks. Besides documentaries, she is worked as an indie features such as Down For Life. She continues filmmaking within USC’s School of Cinematic Arts as well a outside and hopes to continue making films that matter.
Kaveh Taherian is a jack of all trades who has worked jobs across the board of the creative arts, including film director, illustrator and graphic artist. Some notable credits include working on HBO’s Entourage and The Simpsons. He received his B.A. in illustration/design which gave him the skills to found his own creative services business, Digi Socks Design. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Kaveh was born to Iranian immigrants who encouraged him to pursue a career in the visual arts. This brought him to Los Angeles in 2008.
Hongsik Park studied architecture at Kookmin Univ (South Korea) and won several awards in TV commercial contest including MTV, Sony and Samsung. He wandered around edge of filmaking several years working as a journalist for Film 2.0 and Movist magazine, a game architect and a motion graphic designer. When there’s no shooting with his USC friends, he usually spends all day writing and daydreaming.
Claudia Castello was born in Rio de Janeiro and has been living in Southern California for the last 9 years. Claudia discovered her passion for film making through editing, and working on the documentary ‘The A Word’ has been a great experience. Now, going into her third year of an MFA in Film Production at USC, she is looking forward to the next step in her career.
Ritvik Mayank worked as a software engineer for nearly five years after receiving his bachelor’s degree in computer science from the Indian Institute of Information Technology . His desire to collaborate with creative individuals and positively influence the society was his primary motivation to leave his successful career and home country and join the School of Cinematic Arts at USC. Ritvik is a recipient of the James Bridges Scholarship for excellence in directing, honored by the USC School of Cinematic Arts, and he strives to continue making thought-provoking films that address social and emotional issues.
Jesse Keller is an MFA candidate in Film Production at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. As an undergraduate at UCLA, he directed the short documentary, “Monk Chat,” about Buddhist monks and foreign travelers in Thailand. “The A-Word” marks his first serious work as a sound designer.
Josh Mendoza was born and raised in Phoenix, AZ. He attended Stanford University and received a BA in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. After college, he returned home to pursue a successful career in real estate sales and continued writing. His true dream was to work in the film industry and an opportunity to produce a one-hour television pilot while in Arizona renewed that passion and inspired Josh to apply to USC. Josh is currently matriculating at USC in the MFA program in Production.
